


The Lonely Season

by Silex



Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse)
Genre: Drinking alone, Friendship, Gen, Loneliness, New Year's Resolutions, New Years, Phone Calls & Telephones, Slice of Life, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:02:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28614033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silex/pseuds/Silex
Summary: Winter is always the worst time of year to be alone, but sometimes that's what life throws your way.At least ringing in the new year alone is better than running from zombies, right?Right?Except Claire never faced those zombies or any of Umbrella's horrors alone, at least not exactly.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4
Collections: Holiday Horror 2020





	The Lonely Season

**Author's Note:**

  * For [firelord65](https://archiveofourown.org/users/firelord65/gifts).



Christmas and New Year’s always came in such a rush that Claire had long felt that the day after New Year’s Eve should have been something more than it was, just another day. Making it another holiday wouldn’t help though – it was the holidays that she needed a break from.

If it was a new year she wanted to get know it before starting out, get a feel for things to come. Having the first day of it be just another day didn’t sit right with her.

The last year had been something else, but so had the one before, and the one before that and all the way back to Raccoon City. She’d come a long way since then, but it still weighed heavily on her mind. Raccoon had been the end of something, but she wasn’t sure what, not innocence, that was for sure.

Confidence maybe, the assurance that as crazy as things got she would stay in control, her alone against the world. She’d gone into Raccoon City that way, looking for her brother and sure that nothing would stop her and she’d managed to get out, but there were times where it felt like she’d left something behind, lost something that she couldn’t get back.

Raccoon City had closed something off, but not in the neat way December gave way to January in a clean line. One minute it was one year, the next another and you had to reflect on things to figure out what, if anything you learned before putting them away, moving on and starting something new.

It was probably confidence that she’d left behind.

Or common sense given that she kept finding herself in those exact sorts of situations.

She knew for a fact that she could get through any hellish situation on determination and her wits alone, but she didn’t want to get into those situations ever again. It was the closest thing she made to a New Year’s resolution each year.

The same old resolution again and again.

That was why she’d spent last night sitting on her sofa, bundled up in blankets with a mug of leftover eggnog in hand, watching the countdown for the ball to drop.

She had to watch the year end, arbitrary as it was to mark time that way, see it out and be sure it was gone. There was always the chance that the year had one last surprise in store and, like an unwanted guest, she wanted to see it leave.

In the fridge there was a bottle of Champaign, a gift from a friend at work, waiting in anticipation of a party that wasn’t happening.

She had enough friends, people she could be with, but there was a difference between being able to be with people and wanting to be with people.

If Chris had been around she would have celebrated the New Year with him, but he was away, saving the world with the BSAA. Or drowning under mountains of paperwork, because she’d learned from experience with her own work that saving the world meant that there was paperwork to fill out.

Maybe that would have been one silver lining to everything falling apart, not having to submit all the proper forms to all the right people and save copies on record just in case something went wrong.

She’d tried to get in touch with Sherry, but that had been all she could do. It had been a nice conversation, catching up on everything that had happened since she’d last been able to make time to visit Sherry. The conversation had gone back and forth between what the two of them had been doing. Things had been rough for Sherry, but she was back to being her usual upbeat self. Things were fine for her and she wouldn’t be spending the holidays alone, though she’d been vague about who she’d be spending them with and where. From the sounds of things it was work related, her having finally got a job, and because it was the DSO she couldn’t go into too much detail, just that she was fine and things were looking up for her.

That had been heartening to hear, even if it meant that Sherry would be too busy over the holidays for Claire to visit this year. Next year, she’d suggested and they’d made vague plans that would, if previous years were anything to go by, would fall through.

And that had been the end of her list of people she actually wanted to spend the holidays with. The people she knew from work, even if she considered them friends were hard for her to deal with at the best of times and this wasn’t the best of times for her.

She’d ushered in the New Year alone.

Only after the ball had dropped did she go into the kitchen and pour herself a glass of Champaign. Until she was sure that the year was well and truly over she’d wanted to have a clear head and be ready for that one last surprise.

Not that Champaign, even a whole bottle, was enough to make her muzzy enough to have trouble with any disaster she could imagine.

Then again it was the ones that she never imagined being possible that always got her.

Only once she was certain that the old year was well and truly over, did she toast the New Year with the hope that it would be better than the previous.

There was a second solitary toast to the old year being gone and everything it had taken with it.

Then, because Champaign was hardly alcohol and the waiting had left her too wound up to sleep, Claire searched through her kitchen cabinets for something stronger.

One last toast, this one for every _one_ that the old year had taken with it, and she went to bed.

The phone ringing woke her up.

Her first thought was that she must have just fallen asleep, having let her guard down too soon, and that late night calls were never, ever good news.

According to the clock on her phone it was nearly noon though, and the number was an unknown.

Funny, because she didn’t feel like she’d gotten a full night’s sleep, and because she had mixed feelings about unknown numbers.

Usually they were scams, but she knew enough people who traveled to enough different places, often without taking their phones, that there was the off chance it could be someone.

Or about someone.

Chris hadn’t been doing too good lately.

Jill was doing whatever she was doing.

Sherry was…somewhere doing something.

There was a superstition that you how you ended the old year determined what the new one had in store for you.

She’d been waiting and now she was staring at her phone, full of dread.

Or was it the way you started your new year that determined how the rest would follow.

If that was the case things might be even worse.

Maybe they’d hang up, or leave a message or just go away.

The ringing stopped.

Must have been a scam then, and she allowed herself to breathe.

Her relief was short lived as the phone started ringing again.

Whatever it was about had to be important, too important for them to just send a text and get it over with.

And she couldn’t help thinking that no one ever gave bad news through a text.

Claire sighed, why did she have to go and have a thought like that?

She knew the answer though, because it was true and because with everything that had happened since the start of it all in Raccoon City there was no reason to expect good news from an unknown number.

Prepared for the worst she picked up the phone and waited.

There was a long pause, whoever was on the other end waiting for her to say something, then a familiar voice, “Hello? Claire?”

“Leon?” She laughed, surprised at the sudden relief she felt. He didn’t sound hurt or upset or anything other than surprised, “I was just thinking about you.”

That wasn’t true, not exactly, but he was such a part of it all that thinking back to Raccoon City was the same as thinking of him.

“I was thinking about you too,” said in a way that made her see his perpetually bemused smile, “Uh, though I guess that’s not really a surprise, is it? It’s kind of why I called you, but then you took so long to answer I was worried that you’d gotten a new number, or I’d called the wrong number, or -”

“Kind of?” Clair smiled wryly as she cut him off, “Is there another reason?”

They hadn’t really had the chance to meet up much over the years, at least not deliberately, but they’d talked about it. Maybe actually making it happen would be a way to start the New Year right, or at least differently. She’d spent last night alone, holding her breath as the ball dropped, one last chance for the old year to do something terrible.

Nothing had happened and she’d gone to bed, and looking back she wasn’t sure if she’d been relieved or disappointed about it.

That said a lot about her, that she’d almost wished that some crisis she imagined had happened just to get it over with when she was ready for it.

“Not right now,” Leon said, sounding tired, but also genuinely grateful, “Just calling to see how you’re doing.”

“I’m,” she had to stop and think. How was she was doing was a question that she wasn’t sure she had the answer to, “I’m here I guess.”

Which she decided was something, after all she’d been through she was alive and relatively comfortable in her own bed. Things could have been a lot worse.

“Same,” Leon said, his voice fading slightly as he must have shifted his hold on the phone, “Except drunk or maybe hungover too.”

That made her smile, because of course Leon had been to some party, had probably been up to see the sun rise before finding his way back home. That was the kind of wild life he lived.

Or at least she imagined that he lived. Thinking about it, she really didn’t know all that much about what he did other than his job.

“One hell of a party then?” Claire asked, trying to imagine the kinds of place Leon would go for a New Year’s party and the kind of people who would be there. Probably somewhere exotic with people to match. They’d both had a lot of excitement in their lives, some different and some uncomfortably similar.

“It was,” Leon laughed bitterly, “I just wish that I’d been able to join in. I was working security in Times Square. An anonymous tip got sent in that someone we’d been keeping an eye on was going to try something there when the ball dropped. I can’t say any more than that about it over the phone other than it didn’t happen. Turned out to either have been a test or a distraction because nothing happened and I spent the night in and out of the crowd, watching other people have a good time and hoping that I wasn’t missing something in the middle of all of it.”

It sounded like they’d had a very similar end to the old year, at least emotionally. Even if he’d been surrounded by people he’d been just as alone, just as worried.

Except it might have been worse for him, all those people around yet isolated from them.

She thought back to how she’d felt watching the crowd on TV last night. Leon might have been one of those tiny dots on her screen and she’d never have been able to pick him out even if she’d known. Would it have made a difference if she’d known he was there and been looking for him?

“As soon as I got off I went straight back to the hotel they had me staying at,” he continued, “It’s a nice enough place and I started working my way through the minibar they have, my own one man party. Probably not half as fun as the one you were still in bed when I called.”

So her last toast might not have been alone. It was possible that at the time she had that last drink Leon was having his first. She wasn’t sure if that made things better or worse.

“I went to the same kind of party,” she admitted, hoping that he wasn’t disappointed by her not having a story about a wild night with friends.

“At least you got to see the ball drop,” Leon said, “I was being yelled at by some half wasted blond as I was trying to confiscate what turned out to be jars of vodka mixed with Gatorade from her. Of course you see someone with a backpack take out a glass jar of some suspiciously colored liquid and look like they’re about to drop it you’re going to act.”

“Yeah,” given the context of Leon’s situation if she’d been the one there things would have probably gone a lot worse, starting with her tackling the woman. Like her brother, Claire knew that she tended to over react, “Though at least you’ve got better stories to tell.”

“As long as I leave out the part where, as I was trying to get the backpack, she managed to take off one of her shoes and started hitting me with it.”

Claire thought to a few of the pairs of heels she had in the back of her closet, rarely worn and never used as weapons, but they could certainly do some damage.

“Luckily it was just a sneaker,” Leon laughed, “But still, ending one year and starting another by being smacked in the face by an old shoe isn’t what I’d wanted.”

“Not your usual adventures,” Claire agreed, “But it could have been worse.”

“Yeah, a lot worse.”

Any sense of levity that there had been was gone after Leon said that and Claire wished that she could take back her own comment. The tip he’d gotten could have proved correct and then he, and all those people might have been dead, or worse.

“So, what have you been up to?” It was a desperate reach and she knew how pathetic it sounded, but she didn’t want the conversation to end there.

“Work,” Leon’s voice faded out as he again shifted his grip on the phone and she had the feeling he was reaching for something, possibly a half empty bottle or glass from the night before, “Lots and lots of work.”

“Work you want to talk about?” Claire asked hopefully. If he had a story to share she could try to think of something and the conversation could continue naturally, like they were just two normal people talking about work and other normal things.

As though anything about their lives had been normal for a long time.

“I wish I could, but it’s for the government.”

It figured, given that he’d been in Times Square the previous night to stop a terrorist attack that had never happened, but she still smiled at the thought. Raccoon City and Umbrella had ruined his ambition of being a cop and he’d ended up with something better, or maybe worse. The way he sounded right now it was probably worse.

She wasn’t going to give up so easily though, “What about when you’re not at work?”

“If I’m not at work I’m too tired to do anything. Traveling the world is exhausting.”

Claire couldn’t remember the last time she’d gone anywhere or done anything, so even that sounded more fun that the routine she’d found herself stuck in, “At least you get to see interesting places.”

“Yeah, between getting chased by B.O.W.s in South America and chasing terrorists in Europe I’ve been in trouble in some pretty _interesting_ places.”

Leon didn’t sound bitter, just tired and Claire couldn’t blame him, still, “Okay, we really need to catch up some time, because South America? You never told me about that.”

Claire thought of her friends from work, acquaintances really. When they were doing something she was always invited because it was the polite thing to do, but she always found a reason not to.

She was tired and wanted to turn in early that night.

She was waiting for a call from Chris or was going to try and call him.

It had been a long a long day and she had to clean up around the house.

There was nothing other than work that she had in common with any of them.

And countless other even flimsier excuses.

Everyone she interacted with she tried to keep at a distance because…

She honestly didn’t know why it felt so dangerous to have friends, or let her guard down enough to relax, but it did. Leon was someone she could talk to about what she’d been through and he’d understand without insisting that she was brave or practically a superhero for getting though everything she had.

Leon understood.

“We really should,” he sounded thoughtful, “You’re still working with that relief agency cleaning up after bioterrorism incidents, right?”

“I can take time off,” she said quickly.

“You won’t need to,” Leon sounded more alert, more interested than before, “I’ll be doing some cleanup work of my own in Italy, going after a few loose ends with Umbrella and they’re still dealing with the mess along the coast, so if you ended up there with the people you work for we can help each other out.”

That wasn’t what Claire had in mind with her suggestion, but there was a certain appeal to it. Contrary to what her brother claimed, she wasn’t a thrill seeker by nature, she just always ended up where trouble was. It was bad luck and Umbrella that were to blame.

That and her desire to see things through to the end.

Which was why she wasn’t the sort to take a vacation, sitting around and trying to relax only made her increasingly restless until all she wanted was to get back to work and distract herself. Meeting with Leon in Italy and playing tourist for however long was a nice thing to dream about, but that was all it was.

If she was there she’d have to be doing something, anything.

“Come on, I’ll need someone to watch my back while I’m there,” Leon urged, sounding so sincere that it had to be a joke, “Someone to keep me safe from zombies and whatever else is out there.”

He’d really latched onto the idea, and she couldn’t blame him. They’d been through so much together and it would be nice to spend some time with someone who knew, someone who’d seen the same things.

A change of scenery would help shake her out of the gloom that had fallen over her since the start of the holiday season.

“I’ll see what I can do, but I can’t make any promises,” Claire said, smiling.

“You’ll come through, I know it. We can –” Leon was cut off by a beep even she could hear it over the phone, “Shit that’s loud. Sorry Claire, I’ve got another call coming through.”

“That’s fine,” she said, though she had a feeling that Leon had hung up on her before he could hear it.

It _was_ fine though, work was work and with whatever Leon was involved in, he didn’t have much time to talk.

Later, when they met up in Italy they’d have time to catch up and share stories and maybe, just maybe, pretend that the whole world wasn’t actually as crazy as it was.

Until then she’d find ways to distract herself and try not to think about what had been so urgent.

After all, worrying that the attack Leon had been ready for had happened was no way to start a new year.

Though if it had, she’d already been through hell to find her brother. Going to New York to find Leon wouldn’t be that much worse, not when she’d be ready for it.

So much for New Year’s resolutions.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you don't mind this late treat, your prompts were so good that I really wanted to do something with them.


End file.
